The West Midlands Rehabilitation Service provides link workers for people from ethnic minority groups undergoing neurological rehabilitation in in-patient settings and attending a community unit. This provision was developed from a pilot project to improve the quality of rehabilitation to ethnic minority groups, and to identify areas of philosophy and practice relating to cultural issues that required attention. The project introduced link workers to the neuro-rehabilitation setting for the first time and the impact of their input was evaluated.
The link workers receive additional training about brain injury rehabilitation. They have helped individuals and their carers to have a better understanding of the rehabilitation process and to make individuals' rehabilitation more culturally appropriate. They involve people in a number of rehabilitation processes including goal setting, information gathering, attendance at case conferences and carer education.
Liz Wright, Clinical Development Project Manager
How the examples were chosen and evaluated, and how to submit an example.